I’ll have to give 18.3 a try.... I’m thinking of getting a new SSD anyway. Agree on Win 7 being the best. I have a laptop and a tablet with 8.1 and I hate them.
Might want to go grab the 18.3 file download while you can and save it. I noticed some of the mirror sites are starting to 404 on the 18.3 download. :)